Kayem Foods, Inc.

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Growing, Growing, Growing
by Virginia Lazar

How do you celebrate your 90th anniversary? Add a 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art processing area, according to Kayem Foods, a company that hasn't learned the meaning of "can't."

Kazimierz Monkiewicz (K.M. = Kayem) began his pushcart handmade sausage business in 1909, shortly after he and his wife Helen immigrated from Poland and settled in Chelsea, Mass., just across the Tobin Bridge from Boston. It was a solid business and soon grew into a small retail market, one of the first meat-based corner markets of the day. But unlike his competitors Kamierz, who was called Charlie locally, had an edge on his competition. His Polish specialties - kielbasa and kiszka (blood sausage) - were so popular that ultimately other storekeepers asked him to supply their businesses. Soon he added wholesaling to his establishment.
Slowly, Charlie brought his sons Frank, Ray, Walter and Tony into the business, and refocused it primarily on wholesaling. The brothers added frankfurters, liverwurst, bologna and other deli meats to the line. Following World War II, most of their competitors began to supply the growing market demand for prepackaged meats. Because the Monkiewicz brothers couldn't afford the necessary equipment, they were forced to continue wholesaling deli items, supplying the small stores. "And it turned out to be a blessing in disguise," explains Ray Monkiewicz, third generation Kayem CEO. "When delis made their comback, we were a supplier to them in our niche business. We grew with them."
"Not only did we manufacture products for delis, we distributed them. We were a full service deli distributor in New England and we had nothing in the self-service meat case except kielbasa, " Ray continues. "We created a mission statement that said we'd be the premium deli supplier and vendor in New England. We have to change that mission statement now, because with all of our aquisitions deli is not our primary focus anymore. It is still a major one, but with Italian sausage, hams, roast beef, corned beef, pizza, cooked linguica, even fresh chicken sausage... our reach is so much broader."
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